From b31c2fc263bf36265b72c36bd5d2cae898c7684a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mark Dickinson <mdickinson@enthought.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2022 18:49:00 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Fix float(s) error message when s contains only
 whitespace

---
 Lib/test/test_float.py                                   | 3 +++
 .../2022-08-04-18-46-54.gh-issue-95605.FbpCoG.rst        | 2 ++
 Objects/floatobject.c                                    | 9 ++++++++-
 3 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2022-08-04-18-46-54.gh-issue-95605.FbpCoG.rst

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_float.py b/Lib/test/test_float.py
index b5e271abc86a5e..7dbbdebef17558 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_float.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_float.py
@@ -137,6 +137,9 @@ def check(s):
         check('123\xbd')
         check('  123 456  ')
         check(b'  123 456  ')
+        # all whitespace (cf. https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/95605)
+        check(' ')
+        check('\t \n')
 
         # non-ascii digits (error came from non-digit '!')
         check('\u0663\u0661\u0664!')
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2022-08-04-18-46-54.gh-issue-95605.FbpCoG.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2022-08-04-18-46-54.gh-issue-95605.FbpCoG.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..49441c6b3118b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2022-08-04-18-46-54.gh-issue-95605.FbpCoG.rst	
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix misleading contents of error message when converting an all-whitespace
+string to :class:`float`.
diff --git a/Objects/floatobject.c b/Objects/floatobject.c
index 4b1b24f2e702a4..c4353572d32d8e 100644
--- a/Objects/floatobject.c
+++ b/Objects/floatobject.c
@@ -162,11 +162,18 @@ float_from_string_inner(const char *s, Py_ssize_t len, void *obj)
     double x;
     const char *end;
     const char *last = s + len;
-    /* strip space */
+    /* strip leading whitespace */
     while (s < last && Py_ISSPACE(*s)) {
         s++;
     }
+    if (s == last) {
+        PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError,
+                     "could not convert string to float: "
+                     "%R", obj);
+        return NULL;
+    }
 
+    /* strip trailing whitespace */
     while (s < last - 1 && Py_ISSPACE(last[-1])) {
         last--;
     }

From e5175696413dc2fa6c191679bf6666169cb9e693 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mark Dickinson <dickinsm@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2022 19:37:36 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Add check for empty string

---
 Lib/test/test_float.py | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_float.py b/Lib/test/test_float.py
index 7dbbdebef17558..f8350c1e4caa27 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_float.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_float.py
@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ def check(s):
         check('  123 456  ')
         check(b'  123 456  ')
         # all whitespace (cf. https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/95605)
+        check('')
         check(' ')
         check('\t \n')